Discussion Forums Tool
The Discussion Forums tool allows you to communicate with other site participants through moderated online discussion forums. It also allows you to send private messages to individual site participants.
In this tool, discussion messages are organized by category, forum, and topic.
• A category is the largest grouping. Each category is made up of one or more forums.
• Each forum contains one or more topics of discussion.
• Each topic contains the initial message (the one that created the topic) and all replies to that message.
This tool has many important features.
• Control over user access: With release 2.4, the Discussion Forums tool has become aware of groups set up in the CLE Site Editor tool. As a result, you control access to discussions by restricting access to forums to specific groups and sections and by selecting access-related attributes for individual forums.
• Flexible categories and forums: When you add this tool to your site, the CLE automatically sets up two discussion categories for you: Main and Other. Main contains two forums—Questions and Class Discussions. Other contains one forum—Student Lounge. You may change these default categories and forums and add others as needed.
• Icons indicate status: Icons allow you to grasp the status of categories, forums, topics, and messages immediately.
• Breadcrumb trail: Most Discussion Forums screens contain a breadcrumb trail in the upper portion of the screen. Some screens also show the breadcrumb trail near the bottom of the screen. The trail shows the Discussion List (which is the tool home page) first, followed by the forum and topic you are currently working in (if any). To return to any of the places noted in the breadcrumb trail, click the appropriate breadcrumb.
• Watch and Bookmark it!: These two functions allow you to keep an eye on discussions of special interest or that you might otherwise overlook.
Accessing the Discussion Forums Tool